Project Momentum

Every day, multilingual learners walk into our schools carrying remarkable strengths. Yet educators tell us the same thing again and again: they want to reach multilingual learners, but they were never prepared to do it well. Classroom teachers, specialists, and school leaders are often left to figure it out on their own.

Project Momentum exists to change that.

WHO WE ARE

Project Momentum is a professional learning initiative of the Southeast Service Cooperative (SSC), a public nonprofit regional education service agency based in Rochester, Minnesota. Project Momentum builds educators' capacity to help multilingual learners succeed in school and beyond. What began in southeast Minnesota now reaches educators in more than 30 states.

WHAT WE DO

We believe that when teachers grow, students thrive. Our programs meet educators where they are, with flexible, research-grounded learning designed for busy professionals.

Continuing education courses give teachers practical strategies they can use the next day: integrating language and content, differentiating instruction, engaging families as partners, and designing assessments that let students show what they truly know. Micro-credentials offer focused learning on timely topics, including structured literacy and supporting multilingual learners with disabilities.

Our ESL licensure pathway, approved by the Minnesota Professional Educator Licensing and Standards Board (PELSB), prepares educators to earn their ESL license through a seven-course sequence covering linguistics, language and society, multimodal literacy, family and community engagement, and culturally and linguistically responsive assessment. 

Leadership programming equips principals and district administrators to build schoolwide systems where multilingual learners and their families are welcomed, supported, and celebrated.

OUR APPROACH

Everything we do is grounded in an asset-based philosophy. Our courses help educators recognize and draw on multilingual learners' strengths, so students can access rigorous content while developing English and keeping the home languages that connect them to their families and communities.

Our work is grounded in decades of research on second language acquisition and designed by experienced educators who have taught multilingual learners in classrooms across Minnesota and around the world.

WHY IT MATTERS

One well-prepared teacher can reach hundreds of students over a career. When a science teacher learns to build vocabulary into every lab, when a special education teacher learns to distinguish language development from disability, when a principal learns to bring families into decision-making, the impact ripples outward to entire classrooms, schools, and communities.

Educators who complete our programs tell us they feel more confident, more effective, and more connected to their students. That confidence translates into classrooms where every child can participate, contribute, and succeed.

WHY WE NEED YOU

Your gift helps us keep professional learning affordable for educators, especially those in rural and under-resourced districts. It helps us develop new courses that respond to what teachers are asking for. And it helps us reach more educators, so that more multilingual learners have a teacher who understands how to help them thrive.

A gift of any size makes a difference. Together, we can make sure every multilingual learner has an educator who sees their brilliance and knows how to help it grow. Thank you for investing in educators and the students they serve.

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TESTIMONIALS

"The materials and coursework are among the best of any PD in which I have participated. I am thinking about multilingual learners in different ways already!"

- Participant in Empowering Educators of Multilingual Learners Course | July 2026